A majority of New York City voters disapprove of the way Mayor Michael Bloomberg handled the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Fifty-one percent of New Yorkers said they disapprove of Bloomberg’s handling of the protests, while 42 percent approved, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.

The poll comes several weeks after Bloomberg ordered the demonstrators removed from their encampment at Zucotti Park in downtown Manhattan.

Bloomberg, who is still being mentioned as a potential third-party presidential candidate in 2012, has a steady general job approval rating, as New York City voters approve of him 49 percent to 42 percent, virtually unchanged from his rating in October.

“New Yorkers like Mayor Mike personally and they sort of like his policies, but his job approval meanders far below those heady days late in his second term. Voters continue to think that he’s lost his focus in this third term,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Men were more likely to disapprove of the mayor’s actions during the protests than women were. Men disapproved of the mayor 55 percent to 40 percent, while women disapproved of the mayor 47 percent to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, the Police Department got a 50 percent to 46 percent approval to disapproval rating for its conduct during those protests.

The poll was conducted Dec. 7-12 with a sample of 1,242 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.